


Parent and Child

by GrrHatLet



Category: Interview With the Vampire (1994)
Genre: Father-Daughter Relationship, Grief/Mourning, Mother-Son Relationship, Other, Sobbing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-12
Updated: 2016-10-12
Packaged: 2018-08-22 00:44:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8266477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GrrHatLet/pseuds/GrrHatLet
Summary: A moment between Lestat and Gabrielle on loss.





	

“She would’ve been one hundred and ninety...” Lestat murmured to the air.

Gabrielle listened to the words pouring from him silently, bereft of the habitual distance. Their proximity shoulder-to-shoulder, her eyes giving naught but patient acceptance.

Lestat hesitated, then swallowed, speaking to someone and no one at all. “She…Louis…we…we loved her,” he swallowed again, “ _love_ her.” He clenched something behind those teeth, swallowing it back along with a plethora of emotions he had been too frightened to let collect. Always hiding himself and distracting the rest. Too afraid to allow those passions to surface lest he be undone by what he might find.

“She looked like me.” He said dully. “It was no challenge convincing anyone I was her father.”

A beautiful little girl, from what he and Louis dared reveal. A very young child, _too_ young to have existed happily as one of their kind. Nevertheless… Gabrielle watched and waited for him to continue.

“If you could’ve watched her hunt, mother…” he spoke, almost with awe or pride. “She took to it as a natural.” He swallowed again. “But Louie…he…she preferred him—there’s no denying that ever.” Was he saying it to her, or to himself? Gabrielle did not ask.

“He would give her love in ways I could not. Favoring affections over expensive offerings. Our relationship was brief, and perhaps she was set on Louis from the beginning. …But she was dear to me, regardless of whether she knew it.”

Gabrielle simply waited, aware of what would be imminent.

Lestat shuddered unwillingly against the thickness of the night. “No matter the years that pass, I still think of her. As though it will never be accepted…” The cords in his neck were strained. There would be nothing more.

Gabrielle observed her son. Her only, living son. The one child she had left in the expanse of the world and the one dearest as well. Her time as an immortal being brief, and a mortal briefer still, but time could be a meaningless factor in many a circumstance indeed.

She spoke factually. "I have given birth to six children, and of them all, only three survived. It has been two centuries since then, but do you think I've forgotten?" 

Lestat did not answer. Only the rims of his eyes, the bobbing of his throat gave acknowledgement that her words had been heard.

Gabrielle did not neglect his heartache, and leaned in to wrap him close. Lestat could not hold himself anymore, soon collapsing under his grief. His trembling body unable to withstand the measures of overdue sorrow.

Gabrielle’s voice was nothing but—as always—full of honesty.

“Weep, my son. Pain is not a thing to be ashamed of.”

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by: "Her Birthday" http://archiveofourown.org/works/635513 Read if you dare.
> 
> Something happy next time, promise.


End file.
